Say My Name
by lightangelwing
Summary: NEW SUMMARY: So there's a new girl in town, and her name's Tohru Honda. And for some freaky reason, she and Yuri's fates are now inexplicably tangled. But does that give her a right to Yuri? Not if Wolfram has something to say about it.
1. The Separate Departures

Disclaimer: I don't have anything witty to say here. Obviously, Kyo Kara Maoh's not mine.

Say My Name

Summary: "Then why are you looking at _her_?" the blond demanded. Yuuri looked away. "It's not what you think," he replied. But the look on his eyes told everything that Wolfram needed to know.

Note: No character-bashing here in this fic. And yes, there's no OC here. This would be explained more on upcoming chapters.

Chapter One: The Separate Departures

It was another cold, dismal day. Yuri thought so too. He rushed home as he swerved around his bike, trying to beat the rush hour traffic. Classes for today were canceled, due to some super typhoon that was bound to reach Japan within today.

The schools didn't want to take chances though. Now, at 1:35 pm, crowds of students were already swarming out of the gates and into the streets.

He glanced at the sky. Rain hadn't even started yet. The swirls of gray, rumbling masses of clouds resembled like omens of damnation and suffering. This was the reason Yuri Shibuya hated the rain.

He reached home in a new record, only seven minutes. Considering that in a normal, average day, he'd take to about fifteen minutes or so to go back home from school.

"Are you okay, Yuri?" asked his mother warmly. He shook his head, drawing warmth from his mother's tender brown eyes.

It was a customary question, asked for everyday routine's sake. But especially with an impending storm, his mother was worried of her son.

"Some cream puffs would be nice," he added. He glanced at the house. His older brother was missing. Again.

"Okay," said Jennifer and she returned towards the kitchen.

He went upstairs and pondered over several matters. Such as any remaining schoolwork left to be done. For this, he called Murata, who promptly gave him a very accurate, detailed, to-do list for this week. Yuri knew there was a fair chance of classes going to be canceled for tomorrow also, but he didn't want to take any chances.

This took him two hours and half. Halfway through, his mother interrupted with a plate of heated cream puffs. Yuri was grateful and he finished his work in a considerably lighter mood. Before that interval, rain was already pounding hard and his emotions were dampened to a significant degree.

That was the effect of the rain on Yuri.

* * *

On the other side of the town, a girl of about sixteen shivered outside. She was only wearing a pale yellow raincoat to shield herself against the forces of nature. Apart from her knitted sweater and a short skirt, there was nothing to keep her from feeling the freezing cold.

But she persisted, walking on along the riverbank. Despite the chilly weather and the strong torrent of rain.

She really didn't have anything much in the way of money. She only had her rucksack that contained her most precious possessions, most of which was there because of sentimental and practicality reasons, nothing worth that much.

She felt so empty, and so alone. Nobody within a ten meter radius was in sight and it was perfectly understandable why. There was a raging storm, that's what.

But that knowledge didn't made her stop. She plodded on. She knew that she was doing this at the wrong time and for the wrong reasons.

Snippets of conversations from the past flashed their way to her mind. '_There really is no better time to do something at all_,' one voice above all the others stuck to her.

It was the voice of her mother.

It was also the same person who abandoned her. Who left her alone, at the mercy of strangers. Strangers who really were…strangers. After she thought

they were kin, after everything that had happened and after everything she'd done for them. She supposed she should've known better, after all, her own kin felt like outsiders to her too.

But a small voice in her mind cut back to her.

Wait, abandoned? That wasn't right.

She forcedly reminded herself that it was not that it was _her choice_. It wasn't as if her mother knew that she was going to leave her one, dependent, frail daughter behind. Her mother would never do that.

But all the same, the idea kept haunting her mind.

She cried, willing herself to stop those taunting voices. It did nothing, it only made her hurt. Whosever fault this was didn't matter anymore.

They did nothing, but only served as more fuel for her to move on.

* * *

"Yuri, bath's ready!" called out Jennifer.

The said-mentioned boy yawned and stretched his arms. "Coming," he responded.

He went out of his room, taking his towel along with him. The strong downpour of rain lasted for three hours or so, but it was now over. There was only a fine drizzle outside.

Even though the temperature was colder than normal, Yuri still liked to have a hot bath. His mother was concerned, what if he got a cold afterwards? He shrugged it off and reassured his mother.

"Remember, ten minutes and you're out," admonished Jennifer.

"Uh-huh," he replied as he entered the bathroom and closed the door. He clambered inside the tub and sank there until only the top of his head was visible.

Yuri closed his eyes and felt the warm water soaking into his limbs, like some sort of an elixir bringing strength to his body. His mind was at ease and all his worries draining away. His body was aching, after the stressful torture it had received physically, mentally and emotionally.

After doing his schoolwork, his mother told him to help around the house. He agreed, because he felt he needed to stretch his limbs and doing menial work was going to help unclog his numbed brain. Yuri had no idea how damaging it was for his pride when he decided to chop onions. Tears flowed unbidden from his eyes, while Jennifer chuckled at the sight of her grown-up son crying.

"And to think it's onions, Yuri! I thought this might occur because of girls!" chortled his mother. Yuuri glared at her, which really wasn't that effective considering the still-flowing tears.

Then his mother decided to clean up the living room. As in 'clean up', like moving around the furniture, not just sweeping and mopping up the floor. He had no idea what entered his mother's mind when she decided to do it, because it was a rainy day and too early for spring cleaning. But he complied, and wished he'd reread his mangas instead.

Jennifer was actually the type of woman that was too spick-and-span picky. Her son only found out about this, after moving the couch (which sure weighed a damn twenty tons to him) in several places, for like thirty times. Only to have the couch repositioned at the same spot as it first was.

So it was only fair that after the living room looked positively 'neat and tidy' to his mother, he demanded a hot bath and paella for dinner. Hmm. Thinking about the paella made his stomach growl. Yuri smiled, thinking about how satisfied his tummy was going to be later. He was sure there was going to be paella, even if his mother had a shocked expression in her face when he made clear his wishes.

Jennifer once found a paella recipe that didn't took too long and could be done on the rice cooker. Yuri didn't believe it when his mother first attempted to cook it up. He secretly ordered pizza in case dinner turned out to be inedible for humans. After all, who cooks paella on a rice cooker? But for all that it was worth, it was delicious right down to the very last grain of rice.

He suddenly opened his eyes. He could've sworn he heard a ringing sound. It wasn't that loud, yet it wasn't too soft to ignore either. It was coming from deep within, like the vibration of a gong being struck.

He frowned. Was that his mother signaling him to get out already? But it didn't feel like ten minutes had already passed.

He shrugged. He decided to get up. The ringing was still ongoing. He wondered what newfangled, electrical equipment it came from. A 'hey, Yuri! Ten minute's up,' could suffice already.

"I'm coming," he called out.

Then it happened.

* * *

The girl shivered uncontrollably. She was miserable inside and outside as well. Her boots sloshed through the puddles of water in the streets. Her arms were wrapped around her.

The heavy deluge had been lessened already, but there was still a fine mist of rain falling down. Well, compared to the strong torrent before, it was actually bearable at most.

She took shelter inside a pay phone booth. She let the hood down and stared at the blurred reflection at the glass. Her long, brown hair, usually tied up in braids, was let down. It looked ragged and unkempt. She sighed, as that was the least of her worries for the moment.

As expected, she hadn't met a single soul on the way except if you count the passing vehicles on the road. She was sure that every driver actually spared a glance at her, wondering what in the world was making the poor girl strolling under heavy rain. One of them even stopped by and offered her a ride home.

She refused, of course. On normal situations she would've gladly accepted and thank whoever it was from the depths of the bottoms of her heart. Except that this wasn't normal. If it was, she wasn't even going to be walking outside on a billowing storm.

And then there was the matter about where her home is. Home.

She thought that she could've accepted even a dingy shed as her home. As a place where she could stay, freely.

Thinking about it, she decided to rack her brain for solutions to her second major problem. And the one more pressing and urgent for the moment, apparently.

Because she couldn't stay outside walking forever. Someone somewhere was bound to pick her up and bother her tenaciously, asking of her origins and of her family, her house and her reasons. Then present her to the police. Or something akin to that.

The girl thought hard. There were several, abandoned structures near the beach, as she remembered. She had been there so long ago, yet that little detail stuck to her.

She once asked her mother to whom where those rotting, decrepit edifices belonged to. Her mother smiled and told her it belonged once to rich people, who abandoned their vacation houses the moment something new beckoned them away from the place. Back then, she thought it wasn't true, just another adult-fabricated, supposed-to-be-logical explanation to calm children's minds. She considered those houses actually as the lodgings of several monsters who plagued her mind back then.

She almost laughed, then bit back her tongue. Time to get moving.

But first, she opened her wallet and counted the money left. There was still enough for her to survive on the streets for a week or two. She hadn't even emptied her bank account yet.

And she had no plans to do so, she intended to get a job. Even if she was a high school dropout. A job as a janitor or something as blue-collar was still better than having no source of income at all.

She moved out of the pay phone booth and briskly walked towards the beach. Upon reaching there, she quickly examined closely the row of dilapidated buildings there. Most of them were sagging already under the work of nature and mismanagement for years. They were all bungalows, with once-vivid cobalt blue tiled roofs. Some of the tiles were missing and she was sure there was already a flood of rainwater inside.

The windows were either so dusty you couldn't see a single thing or broken or vandalized. The doors were rotting but locked. She decided to test her luck. She kicked hard on one of them. It budged, but didn't swing open as expected.

She continued her tirade and just when the door looked as if it was about to snap under pressure, it swung open. A smile tugged at her lips at her achievement.

She remained doing this for several minutes or so, inspecting closely a house, kicking the door open and then scrutinizing the inside. If there were puddles of water forming there already, she'd move away from it.

Finally, she found one that seemed ten years constructed later than the others. It still had a roof, and the windows were intact. True, the dust was so thick she sneezed the moment she came inside and the outside was overgrown with weeds and thorns. But beggars can't be choosers after all.

She settled in, then as the rain slowly dissipated, she decided to go outside. The roaring of the waves seemed to beckon at her.

Slowly, she descended to the waters. There was some kind of a ringing echoing from the waves. She knew this sounded delusional.

But the ringing continued on. It didn't seemed like the product of her overwrought, tired mind.

She couldn't explain it, it wasn't too loud or too soft. It couldn't have come from nearby, she doubted anyone would be actually turning up the volume of their transistors so loud in this rainy day and outside too.

But the ringing was still there. She descended down to the waters.

Then the waters suddenly opened up.

* * *

Yuri watched in half-shock and in half-exasperation as the waters suddenly swirled, forming a whirlpool with him at the center.

How many times this happened while he was in the bath tub already? He didn't know the exact number but knew it exceeded beyond ten.

He knew that this was urgent, if the underwater portal connection thingy to Shin Makoku had opened up. He wondered what was this all about.

'Hopefully, nothing that it involves murder and/or theft,' was his last thought as the water sucked him below.

* * *

The girl watched in horror and fascination. The waters were gurgling, roaring beneath her.

She had no idea as of what to make for this sudden new development. Perhaps the possibility of her suffering some sort of idiosyncrasy that quickly ballooned into a psychological problem after everything that happened recently was quite possible.

Or someone decided to test a new underwater, whirlpool-maker machine just at the same time she decided to take a dip at the beach.

She looked down. She was already waist-deep in the water.

Then the water pulled her in.

* * *

At the palace, many people—from soldiers, courtiers or someone who worked in any of the departments—bustled by. Contrary to the awful weather at the human world, the sun was shining and suggested a merry day. Everything was normal. Nothing seemed out of place.

Except if you count their missing king. Or the king's quite fed up fiancé, now in another fit of hysterics, after another invention by Miss Anissina that brought Gwendal in an exceptional outburst that showed his increasingly ill temper.

In fact, if Yuri had known about this, he might actually bang his head at the wall. So there wasn't anything actually life-threatening for the demon tribe today, why did the Great One decided to deprive him of his paella dinner?

Was it because of Gwendal's one-of-a-kind, extremely rare outburst? While that might have been amusing and worth a laugh or two, Yuri didn't know if it compared to the satisfaction his tummy was going to get because of the paella.

Or was it because of the newest, mind-dazzling, beguiling invention courtesy of Miss Anissina. He wasn't sure about that too, but perhaps if it was a paella-whipping machine…

What about his fiancé's impending wrath of doom? Been there, done that. While a sulking Wolfram wasn't much fun to be with, at least Yuri survived.

He didn't know it, but he had a feeling it had something to do with someone. Someone who wasn't from the palace. From Shin Makoku perhaps? He didn't know.

But he was going to arrive. And soon.

* * *

A/N: Of course, like any fic writer out there, I'll post the customary line: Read & Review!! If you liked what you read, at the very least, leave a review. It sucks if there are many hits and few reviews. But it sucks more if there are no hits, of course.

Note: The girl's identity is not really an OC. As I've said at the beginning, this would be explained further on future chapters. And yeah, I know, from what it looks like at the summary, this is going to be one of those angst-ridden YurixWolfram conflict fics. Rest assured it's not. There's still conflict but not that much angst.


	2. The Arrival of Humans

Disclaimer: Once again (because it doesn't get more uncreative than that), Kyo Kara Maoh belongs to its respective owners and not to me.

* * *

Say My Name

Chapter Two: The arrival of humans

* * *

One moment, he was standing in the middle of the bath tub. The next, some freaky, unexplained whirlpool sucked him into who-knows-where. Moments afterwards, Yuri Shibuya was…

Floating in the middle of the sea.

He knew he was floating, as he could feel his body move to and fro from the waves. He stared at the glaring sun, at the clear blue sky.

'Okay, this is certainly weird,' he thought.

He decided to upend himself. Yuri dove headfirst to the waters and then immediately saw that it was a bad idea.

The waters were more than eight feet deep. And still, sunlight penetrated through. He saw a cluster of rocks, seaweeds and a school of swimming fishes.

'Gotta bring my snorkel next time I'll be here,' he said to himself as he swam upright.

Now what? The logical part of his mind questioned him. Yuri looked around and saw a couple of rocky outcrops. They were actually miniature islands, and one of them had an awning that looked like the mouth of a cave.

Yuri swallowed his feelings of anxiety and fear as he tried to get a better look while using dog crawl. Caves made him feel suffocated and entrapped. And there didn't seem to be any solid footing to those mile-high rocky walls so he can traverse them and get on dry ground.

But he decided that it was better to do something than nothing at all. He swam his way towards the nearest islet. As he made his way, he could see a nearby object bobbing at the waters.

He wondered what it was. 'Hopefully a life vest,' he thought.

Then he could see that sadly, it was not a life vest. Nor it was anything he'd recognize at this far a distance. It was long, it had various colors and it bobbled up and down, as it was pushed by the waters.

Closer, and his eyes widened in shock as he realized what it really were.

It was actually a girl, and an unconscious one at that. Yuri briefly wondered if she had attempted to commit suicide by falling from a great height and into the sea.

But his mind noticed other details, like that she wore modern clothes, and concluded that she wasn't around here. More questions decided to bombard him at the moment. 'Where did she came from? How did she get here? Why is she even here?' He decided to get closer to the said person of his curiosity.

He inspected her carefully. She looked like about his age. She had long, brown hair that rippled in the water. Her face looked calm and serene.

"Definitely knocked out," concluded Yuri.

He was staring thoughtfully at her, figuring a rational and logical explanation for her arrival at Shin Makoku. Suddenly, he heard a bugle-like sound punctuating the air.

"Your Highness!" an anxious voice called out.

Yuri turned around and was met with the sight of Gunther waving his arms around, as if His Majesty's life depended on it. He fought back a chuckle and taking one glance at the girl next to him, signaled them to come over here.

The whole royal entourage stopped and stared. Yuri could see Conrad, a couple of soldiers under the House of Weller and Gunther were staring. Not at him, though. They were all taking a good look at the cataleptic girl next to him.

Finally, as it was now getting uncomfortable, the king decided to speak up. "Eherm, I'm quite sure there would be enough time later for questions and answers."

Then Gunther blinked and Conrad moved.

It was as if he had broken some kind of a stupor that fell to everyone. The massive yacht decided to move a bit forward as Conrad mentioned a couple of soldiers. Gunther decided to help him as he rolled down a ladder as he carried the girl bridal style while one hand grabbed the ladder.

'You okay, Yuri?" his godfather asked. He grunted in reply as he heaved the girl and then crashed down to the floor, panting with exertion.

At about the same time, Conrad offered him a new set of clothes. He accepted them gratefully, then motioned the girl. Gunther assured him that the girl would be properly taken care of as he checked thoroughly whether the Demon King was indeed all right. Yuri then proceeded to ask when would the yacht land back to the shore. His godfather told him that it'll take approximately about three hours or so. Relieved from his worries, he went away at one corner.

The black-haired youth then decided to stand guard over the unconscious girl, collecting his thoughts while at it.

* * *

She wondered if it was already seven in the morning. She felt warm and fuzzy, the first she'd ever felt after a very, very long time. She could feel the warmth of the sunlight peeping in.

She opened her eyes. And her sight was unaccustomed by the more-than-unfamiliar scenery that met her.

'W-w-where am I?" she croaked.

Nobody answered her. Silence met her instead. She decided to take a better look around.

True, she really was sitting on a bed. A comfortable, proper bed. She wondered why. After all, didn't she run away and landed a place among one of the abandoned houses at the beach? If anything, she should be sleeping at a cold, dank place with cobwebs and spiders all around.

But from what her senses were telling her as of right now, everything she thought would rationally happen after last night was proving her wrong. She was inside a small cabin, with gleaming varnished wood and furnished in a lavish rococo style.

'Dreaming…?' her mind ventured.

She stretched a hand and willed it to grasp something, actually anything at all. Anything solid enough to prove to her that this was all real.

"So you're awake," a voice issued out in the room that made her lose concentration and let her arm limply fall back.

She turned her head sideways and saw a black-haired guy, about sixteen and leaning on the doorway.

"Where am I?" she repeated her earlier query.

Yuri watched her as she attempted to sit up. He helped her up, steadying her. "You're inside the tender _de Viana_, we've been at sea for about two hours now," he replied.

"The sea!?" she reacted, her eyes widening. Yuri smiled, "Well, we did found you at the sea," he added.

She frowned. Yes, she had taken up residence in a beach, for the moment, but she did not recall trying to set herself afloat at the sea. Then suddenly, her mind conjured up fresh memories of going to the sea, and being knocked out when a whirlpool by some freak coincidence formed exactly where she was.

"The sea…" she repeated, her eyes apparently thinking this over.

Yuri watched her apprehensively, not sure how to tell her that in reality, not only she had crossed from land to sea but to another world.

"But you don't think…" she started, then let the sentence dangle as she stared off in the distance.

"Just out of curiosity, have you been anywhere—that is anywhere, like a pool, a marsh or anything along those lines—a body of water lately, before you er…washed up in the sea?" he asked.

She nodded, thinking of the raging storm and the beach. "I…was… at the beach. Trying to…uh…" she coughed, blurring up whatever last part of her statement was. After all, she couldn't tell him that she just ran away from home and had decided to live for the moment at the abandoned shacks in the beach.

Yuri blinked, startled. Well, if she was anywhere in Japan, and probably she was, there must be some really good reason this girl decided to set foot in a beach and in a rainy night too. There was no way she could've missed the announcement that there was a tropical storm descending upon them. Then something in his mind was evoked, especially the part about how to overcome the language barrier. But first things first.

"Listen, I don't know how to tell you this…but not everything is what as it seems to be right now," he begun, careful of his words. She nodded, as more confusion clouded her eyes. She'd already suspected something but she had no idea how to tell it in words eloquently enough.

"The truth is, I don't really know how and the reasons why, but you're not really where you think you are now. In fact, you're nowhere near enough in Japan. Or any place in the earth for that matter," he added, rubbing his temples. Even if he did managed to sink to her the truth that she wasn't really in the world she'd grown up with, he was sure this was going to be one pain in the neck.

"W-what?" she stammered, her head thrown in circles. Yuri let out one big sigh, preparing for the inevitable.

"You're in Shin Makoku, the Demon World, or more specifically, in the boundaries of the demon tribe," he declared.

The girl only stared at him, apparently trying to digest this in. "True, you're in a different world and a lot more different than the one you've just come from. The people living here have different customs, traditions and dialect. You can understand me because I also come from Japan," added Yuri.

"You said you also come from Japan?" she asked. He nodded. "Then you can communicate with the people here?"

"Well actually you can too. But after undergoing a simple process first," said Yuri and before she can comment on that, he left the cabin and called out for Conrad. He really wasn't so sure about performing the same magic to her that Adalbert did to him when he first arrived. After all, the only people in the human world who'd been taken to Shin Makoku asides from him was Murata, and he already understood the language even before he did.

Conrad appeared in the cabin and took a polite look at the girl. He introduced himself and prompted by the king, removed the language barrier to her.

"Feeling better?" he asked her. The girl nodded her head, smiling at Conrad.

"So um…as you can see, you'll be staying in this world for quite a while until the Great One decides to send you back. You might want to ask any question you want," said Yuri lamely, knowing that for a new arrival like her, there would be lots.

"Who's the Great One?" she promptly asked. Yuri turned to look at Conrad, since he himself wasn't that well-versed with the subject.

"He is the first king of the demon tribe," gently replied Conrad. The girl frowned. "You keep mentioning of this demon tribe? Could you please tell me more?"

Before Conrad can launch a summarized, concise history and facts about the demon tribe, the king interrupted. He was suddenly hit by a more important and immediate concern.

"What's your name?" he suddenly asked.

The girl blinked, as if surprised he asked. "It's Tohru," she replied.

"Tohru Honda," she clarified. Yuri proceeded to introduce himself.

Afterwards, the Q&A session began, to which most of the time, Gunther assisted. Conrad only butted in from time to time, whenever he deemed the prime minister's explanations were getting long-winded and a tad confusing. Yuri just stayed back, as he observed Tohru was rather polite, courteous and dare he think it…_sweet_? in dealing with the people around her. She seemed fazed that everyone from the demon tribe had powers of their own, and when Gunther demonstrated his, Yuri readied himself to catch her if she ever fainted again.

But she seemed relieved that Conrad was also part human, after she learned that Yuri, despite coming from a human family, was actually the Demon king. (Into which she addressed him from then on as Your Majesty, something that he tried to correct her.) In fact, the whole encounter wasn't really that much problematic and stress-inducing as he thought. But they suddenly learned a new aspect of Tohru when the time came for the yacht to land and they were about to ride into their respective horses.

Gunther offered Tohru her own horse, which turned out to be a regrettable idea. She almost fell when the strawberry gelding she was lent to suddenly neighed and went rowdy. The gelding turned out to be the most undisciplined horse in the whole stall and afterwards, Tohru had now developed a phobia to horses.

So the new arrangement was that Tohru was seated with Yuri while Conrad and Gunther flanked his side. At first, Gunther was scandalized. Conrad merely raised an eyebrow, as if questioning his godson of what he was doing. Yuri brushed the two, by telling them that Tohru was in safe hands and that effectively shut off Gunther as he tried to explain to His Majesty what an action like this meant to him.

He rolled his eyes, when Gunther decided to make more of a racket about this. He was being very sensitive and delicate about this matter, as if Yuri was some neophyte in horse riding and would let her fall down in a moment's matter. When Conrad tried to explain, Yuri gently but firmly told the two men that while he was not exactly the best rider, he knew the basics so he wouldn't let her come to harm while with him.

That shut the two men, but Gunther pouted instead. Yuri shrugged it off. But he did admit that he had um…some bad vibes…about this.

After the whole fuss was over, the black haired youth was a bit glad they were going back to Blood Pledge castle now and he was quite excited to show her the place. It wasn't everyday that he'd get to be the tour guide to a newcomer from his world to the demon world. Well, with the exception of Murata, but the guy already knew the place even before he did.

Tohru seemed to catch the fact that the Demon King was unexceptionably cheerful even for his standards. "What's up?" she asked gently.

He shook his head. "Nah, just a bit…happy to get back to my second home."

* * *

Lady Celi gushed at the new, floral arrangements done by the recently-hired world-class florist, González Carvajal. Carvajal was employed by none other than Gwendal, a move that surprised everyone at the palace. After all, everyone—that is from the soldiers, to the scullery maids, to the pages in training— could affirm the stern disposition and strict discipline Gwendal was famous for. And Carvajal was more likely to be the artsy-fartsy type, some of his works suggesting rebellion from authorities and matters like that.

Carvajal turned out to be a bigger problem than anticipated, and Gwendal was already in a not-so-cheerful-disposition this morning. And another whatsit-thingamajig courtesy of Lady Anissina proved to be the last drop of oil needed to ignite the wick, which resulted in a disastrous start of the day.

But as Gwendal watched his mother in approval, he decided all the hassle and hoopla in hiring Carvajal to be in charge of the floret decoration of the palace in time for the Malo de Luque festival, was indeed worth it.

His eyes strayed at the form of his obviously-pleased mother for a little longer, as a warm feeling of pride welled within him. Then he heard another growl from Wolfram.

If it hadn't been for the strict self-discipline he imposed for himself (except on very rare occasions), Gwendal would've actually rolled his eyes at his younger brother.

"I can't believe Conrad left me…" he was sulkily muttering on the corner. Gwendal sighed imperceptibly. Really. As if Wolfram didn't know of his already world-famous case of seasickness.

"Wolfram, I think you and I both know the answer for that," he reminded the blond boy. As expected, it did nothing to comfort Wolfram, on the contrary, he faced the wall once more and proceeded on being grouchy.

Gwendal was about to say something more but a squeal from Lady Celi cut him off. "Oooh! The royal entourage had just entered!"

Before the dark-haired man could even begin to step towards the window to get a better look, somebody beat him to it. Wolfram suddenly dashed forward, as if his mother's declaration was the starting signal to a highly-anticipated race.

Wolfram craned his neck as he tried to see more. Indeed, the former queen was not lying. There was already the long procession of horses, starting from the men under the tactical division, several companies and then finally…

It was Yuri, accompanied by his right with Conrad. As anticipated.

However, there was one thing that wasn't accounted for.

"Oh, who's that?" asked Lady Celi. Even Gwendal raised an eyebrow, albeit indiscernibly, anyone else could mistake him for frowning instead. The people, who were clapping and shouting 'God Save the King!' at the top of their lungs, were abruptly stifled by the sight that met them.

Wolfram followed their gazes in direction. And even he was at a loss when he saw what was the commotion all about.

It was a girl, with long locks of chestnut brown hair. She seemed to be serene, her face calm and pensive. But that was not what was making her the subject of a lot of questioning stares.

'Oh, lords…' thought Gwendal, watching Wolfram apprehensively. Even Lady Celi seemed to catch on the whole tension rather quickly. She looked worriedly at her son, wondering how he would react to this rather abrupt, negligible move.

'Well at least we now know what's going to happen at the festival,' she thought.

Gwendal decided to assess the situation briefly and thoroughly. Let's see…was the damage as bad as he expected? He watched the people at the palace, oddly silent, staring at the companion of the king, where moments before they were quite boisterous in welcoming him. And he knew what they were all thinking. The king had a new arrival with him.

It was a girl. And she was settled in his arms. Usually, a sight like that is met by a rather popular but tried-and-tested conclusion. The girl was most likely his intended one, his future wife, his girlfriend or any of those things. Which makes one arrive at a rather deplorable presumption.

Wolfram was replaced at his official role as the current fiancé of the Demon King.

* * *

A/N: As promised, that OC is not really an OC. I generally shy away from OCs in writing my fics as I tend to write the most cliche of all cliche Mary Sues ever. I guess this is more of a crossover anyway.

And yep, it's just getting started. The next chapter would feature a showdown between Yuri and Wolfram and a not-so-helpful suggestion from Gunther.

Comments? Suggestions? Constructive criticism? Reviews please!! (Flames are not needed).


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